Winners of Orland Township dance contest trained for months

Connie Logan has had her share of dance floor success: she met her husband at the Holiday Ballroom on Chicago's South Side more than 50 years ago.

Last week, she won Orland Township's "Dancing with the Senior Stars" competition with a sizzling tango with partner Frank Placek of Wauconda.

Logan, 78, and Placek, 80, finished ahead of five other couples to win the mirror ball trophy in front of nearly 800 people at Giorgio's Banquets on Oct. 25.

"I could be afraid of anything and then the music starts," said Logan of Orland Park. "Then I'm on cloud nine, just floating."

Logan and Placek trained for the competition with marathon dancing sessions at the Willowbrook Ballroom in the months leading up to the contest, she said. Logan spent three nights a week dancing at halls around Chicago until she met her husband, Tom, at the Holiday.

A year later they were married, and Logan discovered her dance partner no longer was interested "in getting his suit all sweated up," at dance halls, she said.

"He was looking for a wife, and he got what he wanted," she said. "And that was OK. I was looking for a husband."

Placek met his first wife at a dance hall after he got out of the Navy, and his love of dance outlasted the 13-year relationship, Logan said.

"He's a wonderful dancer, and he has taught me a lot," Logan said.

The couple were married for 48 years, until Tom Logan died in 2007. Connie Logan returned to her pre-marriage dance habits, and dances several nights a week—despite her two artificial hips.

"If you want to dance, God provides you with what you need to do it," she said.

"Dancing with the Senior Stars" raised more than $10,000 for the Orland Township Scholarship Fund, said organizer Marie Ryan.